Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Another Day at the MAC...and a Bread Recipe

The Nagle girls headed to join the homeschool group at the MAC and had a terrific time. There were more girls there this time and Buttercup said she can hardly wait to head back in two weeks. As for me, I enjoyed talking to a lively bunch of women about everything from how much it costs to heat your home to the differences between public school, home schooling, and unschooling. Grown-up time is definitely a treasure when you make the decision to homeschool.

Anyway, since we didn't get home until 5:30 (we closed the place down!), dinner tonight was quesadillas and then I popped some ingredients into the bread maker to make some sandwich bread for Superman. Superman is a toast man and wants his toast in the morning...so this is how we handle it.


This is the easiest bread machine recipe ever and it makes delicious sandwich bread, hot dog buns, hamburger buns, or rolls whenever you want it. Like all my bread machine recipes, I use the dough setting on my bread machine and do the final rise in whatever pan I've chosen, rather than doing the whole thing in the bread machine. (Melissa, this part is especially for you!) Let it finish the dough cycle, pound it down, knead it a bit, and then form it into a loaf. Put the loaf into your greased loaf pan and let it rise. Bake it at 325 degrees for 25 minutes. Take it out of the pan and let it cool. That's it.

Sandwich Bread

1 cup warm water
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons white sugar (sometimes I just use 1 tablespoon)
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I use canola)
3 cups bread flour
2 teaspoons active dry yeast

That's it!

Put ingredients in order specified by your bread machine manufacturer. Use dough cycle and form loaf or cook on white bread setting. This bread recipe is very forgiving, so don't sweat it. Seriously, last week I forgot to put in the oil and I ended up with a denser bread...I just sliced it up and used it as grilled butter and parmesan hamburger buns. It doesn't get much more forgiving than that.

P.S. Thursday I'm making Sugar Doughnut Cupcakes...doesn't that sound amazing?

8 comments:

Melissa Henning said...

dude. you are TOTALLY psychic! (didn't mean to call you a dude lol well maybe I did, just a little). Tonight we had turkey burgers, on regular whole wheat bread, because we didn't have hamburger buns. Thank you for posting another great staple recipe! and I look forward to your sugar doughnut cupcakes :). They DO sound amazing! :).

question: with the bread machine (our bread machine) when it is onthe dough/pasta setting it mixes it until it's dough, then lets it rise, mixes again, lets it rise--it basically does this a few times (over an hour and 15 mins I think). Should I take it out before the entire cycle is over, like before it rises the first time? sorry for the stupid question...i think you answered it, but i just want to make sure I understood correctly :).

Thanks again! :)

Erin said...

Melissa, "Dude" is definitely a California/WC thing...we use it all the time as a gender-non-specific term. (Buttercup and I get called Dude by Superman all the time.)

As for the bread, let the complete dough cycle finish, then dump your risen dough out on the lightly floured counter or whatever, knead a bit, form into a loaf, and let rise the second time. (it takes about 30 minutes for the second rise...it will be well above your pan (1- 1 1/2 inches), then bake.

Melissa Henning said...

sweet! thank you :). You're totally right about the california thing (jason hates when i slip and accidentally call him dude--usually when I'm excited lol). I lived in redondo beach for quite a long time before moving vancouver, wa, and the dude thing never left my vocab lol.

thanks for clearing up the rising thing for me :). tomorrow I will walk over to the store with logan and get some bread flour so that we can make this :).

good night!

Anonymous said...

Erin,
I'm surprised that you haven't made the bread-making switch to Minnie and let her do all the work :)

Clark said...

hmmmmm....I have asked myself the same question. Why hasn't Erin engaged Minnie in the dough prep? Well, whatever the answer is I am not sure, but this receipe really does make a great loaf of toast....bread.

Erin said...

I've got so many recipes that are easy-peasy breadmaker recipes, I'm just now looking at recipes that Minnie can do for me...

Carol said...

Erin-that loaf of bread looks SO good! My bread machine makes the tall loaf-probably why I don't use it often. I love the hand kneading and doing it the old fashioned way-but won't get rid of my bread machine. I always think there will come the day I'll want to use it-and for sure that will be the day after it leaves the house!

Erin said...

Carol, I had the same problem until someone told me to just use the dough setting and form a loaf myself after it had completed. I feel like I get the best of both worlds...